Gaz Coombes – ‘Here Come The Bombs’

Gaz Coombes - 'Here Come The Bombs'

Score

Grown Up Gaz is certainly more than just alright

In the Britpop race, Supergrass weren’t so much the fat kids lagging at the back as the weirdos that ran in the wrong direction. It’s easy to forget how good they actually were. With ‘Here Come The Bombs’, frontman Gaz Coombes does a surprisingly adept job of retaining the band’s oddball pop sensibility, but shaping it into something that’s, if not mature, then at least slightly less frivolously young and free.

‘Simulator’ bounces along on light-footed drum patterns with a big ol’ glam stomp of a chorus, while the charmingly titled ‘Whore’ blitzes through on massive guitar lines and none-too-subtle lyricisms (“[i]Everybody is a whore/Every fucker’s getting sold out[/i]”), yet there’s restraint to be found between the wig-outs. ‘Universal Cinema’ makes for an impressive centrepiece, moving from delicately plucked guitar through a swirling psychedelic mid-section and back out again, while ‘White Noise’ soars, but with hazy subtlety. Grown Up Gaz is certainly more than just alright.